Voice Over IP (VoIP) Phone Transition Rescheduled to Dec. 9

VoIP phones that have been installed in School of Medicine buildings will become active on Monday, Dec. 9 instead of on Monday, Nov. 11 as previously advertised. Please make sure your VoIP phone remains plugged in to the wall.

Info

There is the potential for a short service outage as early as the night prior to and the entire day of the transition. Users remaining on the old phone system will no longer be able to use 5 digit dialing to reach VoIP phones. If you receive a "phone disconnected" message after attempting to use 5 digit dialing, hang up and dial 7 + the full 10 digit number (including area code).

Plan for the possibility of down time on December 9 in particular in areas where there is no available data port (D-port) for the new VoIP phone. The current telephone port (T-port) will be re-purposed to support the VoIP phones, however, this will require small wiring updates that cannot take place until December 11. There is a potential for a short service outage until these updates are completed by ITS Communications Technicians on December 9. Phone service could be impacted as early as Sunday evening, December 8 and the entire day of porting, Monday, December 9.

Most customers today have two phones sitting on their desks as part of the preparation for this change. On December 9th, phone numbers will “port” from AT&T to Verizon Business and, once the port is completed, the new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones will become the new, primary phone. (Old phones should be returned to recycle bins that will be located on-site the week of December 9th.) Please be sure to follow the new dialing plan for the VoIP phones which does not require a “7” prefix when dialing out. This applies to local, long distance, and international calls. In addition, be sure to change the programming in fax machines for speed dials that are programmed with a “7” prefix, or, that are programmed for 5-digit dialing. You will be able to 5-digit-dial between VoIP phones, however, you will not be able to 5-digit-dial from a VoIP phone to an older model phone on the AT&T phone system.

Most phone lines have been restricted for placing international calls. Phone lines can be easily unrestricted, however, if possible we ask those requests wait until after the December 9th transition.

Voicemail boxes will remain the same (messages and greetings will be retained), however, the voicemail access number will change from 919-962-6200 to 919-428-2828.

UNC Information Technology Services Communication Technologies (Comm Tech) staff are working remotely to make sure the phones are registered and ready for service on December 9th, however, it is important that you notify all faculty and staff in your areas that phones must be plugged-in to the network, and they must be plugged-in to a data port that is configured to support VoIP. UNC Comm Tech technicians left every phone plugged-in and ready for programming. We are identifying many phone lines that we cannot remotely access for registration, which typically means that some phones are either unplugged or moved. The new VoIP phones will not work on December 9th if they are not plugged-in to the network appropriately.

The transition of 4,000 phones is a significant undertaking for all involved. Included in this change are phones that are moving away from a Norstar key system, KT-205 2-line phone system, as well as a large number of Centrex analog and digital phones that have shared phone numbers. Our goal is that this change is minimally service impacting to our customers (if service impacting at all), however, we want to also be realistic about expectations for your phone service the week of December 9th. We are recommending that you plan for the potential for your phone service to be impacted. In some cases, the resolution may take several days – in particular for customers that have shared phone numbers across multiple phones. The team at ITS Communication Technology Services is likely well aware of most issues and are ready to resolve them as soon as phone numbers have completed porting to Verizon Business on December 9th. We recommend submitting trouble tickets through the ITS Help Desk, however, we request that those tickets be submitted a minimum of 1-2 days following December 9th.

Some phones with shared phone lines will need new phone labels. We will be working in your areas the week of December 9th to accommodate this need.

ITS Communication Technologies technicians will be on-site at most locations on December 9th.